TRSM Students Crowned National Champions at Enactus Canada National Exposition

May 29, 2018

Congratulations to the TRSM students in the Ryerson team that won top prize at the 2018 Enactus Canada National Exposition for their youth education program in Peru.

This national competition, held May 14-16, 2018 in Toronto, had 71 winning teams from the Enactus Central, Western and Atlantic Canada Regional Expositions showcasing how their community outreach projects and business ventures are enabling progress through entrepreneurial action.

The 35-member Ryerson team, 32 from TRSM, won the Scotiabank Youth Empowerment Challenge for Project Sacred Valley. This initiative provides Indigenous youth in Pisac, Peru with the business education that has allowed them to create and operate a garden business at their school, employ five students and generate over $4,000 CAD in revenue to ensure students can remain in school. It has empowered 227 youth to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset and break the cycle of poverty in their community.

The combined Ryerson team also had strong finishes in three other competitions at the event. They came in second at the Scotiabank Eco-Living Green Challenge for Project Pura, which empowers local potters in rural communities to up-scale their businesses by creating $2, eco-friendly water filtration systems and distributing within their communities. Potters in both Egypt and India are selling handmade filters made from repurposed materials and have filtered over 2.1 million litres of clean drinking water this year.

In addition, the team was runner-up for The McCain Social Enterprise Accelerator for Project Restore, which provides affordable, sustainable and eco-friendly homes to Indigenous communities across Ontario while providing employment opportunities to marginalized and Indigenous youth. The initiative restores shipping containers into homes using a unique business model and experienced partners, and is projected to have five homes constructed by the end of 2019.

The team was also the semi-finalist for the 17-minute National Competition, which involved a presentation to demonstrate the overall impact Enactus Ryerson had this year. As a chapter, the 116-member team dedicated 56,830 volunteer hours to create 423 new jobs, raise over $100,000 and directly impact 4,083 individuals, while addressing 11 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.